The Jennyrose
by Mischieffoal
Summary: Rose's life is perfect. She is loved by John Smith and loves him back. Madame Vastra's life is miserable. She is loathed by the Victorian public and she loathes them back. But Rose is left on her own, in the wrong century, and Madame Vastra finally advertises for a maid to tidy up her impossible house.
1. Chapter 1

_There was the beautiful old house, covered in ivy and dust. They'd been meaning to go and have a look around for a while, but they had only got around to it that day... and there it was. Those horrible, blank stone eyes staring at her, She heard a shout and glance over the statue's shoulder to see John running toward her, screaming her name... but he had been to late._

_**Chapter One**_

The young woman made her way cautiously up the bedraggled garden path. She could barely see the ground among the weeds and rubbish that cluttered the whole garden, but she could hear it crunching beneath her feet. The garden – or jungle, really, the state it was in – seemed to go on forever, and she'd long since lost the comforting gas lamp's glow to light her way. She picked up the bottom of her skirts just in case there was something apart from weeds on the ground – it wouldn't do to be interviewed in a supposedly respectable house looking like she'd walked through – well, their garden. That sort of thing wasn't accepted in this day and age. Unexpectedly, she cleared the horror of the shrubbery to find the house looming over her. She almost wished she hadn't.

The house was straight out of a ghost story. It looked as if there had been a fire there at some point, all black and grey. No lights shone from the windows and no noise came from within. The young woman reached into her bag to check the advertisement – yes, this was the right address. She hesitated on the verge of the garden jungle and then walked firmly up to the front door. There was no bell, and no one answered her knock. She glanced around as she waited and noticed a scrap of paper floating on the wind. She snatched it up and unfolded it to see minute writing.

"To Miss J. Flint. I suggest you just come in, the door is unlocked."

"Miss J. Flint..." She whispered. She was going to have to get used to that name, she supposed, no going back now. She placed the note in her bag and returned to the door.

There wasn't even a door handle that she could see, and it didn't open when she just pushed. This wasn't her only chance of work, so why didn't she just leave? But that felt like giving on, something she wasn't very good at. She ran a hand over the door, reached to the top of the frame and the bottom... nothing. She checked the sides of door – hinged on the left. She sighed and reached inside her bag for something she shouldn't have had, _couldn't_ have had and slotted it down the right hand side of the door. She heard a click, and the door opened silently, which was somehow more frightening than it creaking like its surroundings suggested it would.

She stepped through the door and glanced around furtively. There weren't any statures here, thank God, just cobwebs covering everything. If she did get this job, it was going to take her weeks just to tidy the place up!


	2. Chapter 2

_Two weeks ago, she had turned around to find herself in a dark alleyway that hadn't been there a second ago. She couldn't see anything beneath her knees because of the thick fog swirling along the ground. She wasn't sure she wanted to, anyway. _

_There had been a time when suddenly appearing somewhere completely different was an everyday experience, but not for such a long time. She headed towards the only light she could see. It was above her head height, so a street lamp, but without the harsh white light of the ones in London. In fact if she hadn't been told many times that Britain's lamps had nearly all been powered by electricity from the beginning of the 20th century, she would have said it was gas light... What had happened? She remembered the old house and the statue of an angel that seemed to move, which meant she must have been hallucinating, because statues can't move. She remembered her partner, John Smith, running towards her whilst screaming her name... But he was only human and far too slow to save her from... what? She must have been drugged and then taken to wherever she was. That was the logical solution. However, her years of travelling had shown her that logic was barely ever right. It must have been the angel. _

_**Chapter Two**_

She crept through the silent house, afraid that any noise might disturb the peace and wake... something. She pushed open door after door, walked through room after room until suddenly she realised that the staircases she'd been passing were all the same – exactly the same. Somehow, she was just getting back to the same room each time. She opened the door that led to the outside, and sure enough, there was the garden path. She put her hands on her hips and shouted. "MADAME VASTRA!"

"Yes?" An accented voice murmured.

She spun around to find a lady standing behind her as though she'd been there the whole time. The younger woman opened her mouth, then thought the better of it. Sher flattened out her skirts and dipped in an awkward curtsy. The woman standing before her wore a black veil over her face and mourning clothes, and seemed to have managed to avoid all the cobwebs, whereas the younger woman looked like an army of acromantulars had attacked her.

"Sorry, ma'am." She couldn't see through the lady's veil, but she had the feeling that she was smiling.

"That's quite all right, dear. Follow me." Madame Vastra turned and disappeared through a wall of cobwebs .

The young woman breathed out slowly, tucked her unruly blond hair behind her ears, gathered up her skirts and charged through the webs.


	3. Chapter 3

_She came into the light and what she saw confirmed that it definitely was powered by gas. Then a cart come out of nowhere and something knocked her out of its path. She landed on her back in the alleyway again with her saviour on top of her. He got up awkwardly and gave her a verbal bashing as she lay there in shock._

"_What do yer think you're doin'?" He was a street urchin, about twelve, but oddly well dressed for it. But no, him wearing a waistcoat and tie wasn't odd.. it fitted with everyone else. "Runnin' ou' inno a road like tha' withou' lookin'? They make 'em carts go so fast round 'ere, they're deadly!" Then his mouth fell open as he looked at her properly. "Wha' the bleedin' 'ell are yer wearin'?"_

_**Chapter Three**_

Coming through the cobweb wall was like walking into another world. It looked as though it had just been spring cleaned, with not a cobweb in sight apart from the way in. Madame Vastra was sitting in an armchair near an unlit fireplace, her veil still covering her face. The young woman stood in the entrance, unsure of what to do.

"Sit." The lady gestured to a matching armchair opposite her.

"Are you sure, ma'am?"

"Yes, yes, I'm sure!"

The young woman hesitated, then perched on the edge of the chair gratefully.

"I have a test you must take if you still want to take this job."

The young woman laughed. "Wha' d'you think I'm here for? I wouldn' have even reached the 'ouse if I hadn' tried everywhere else!"

"No you haven't."

The young woman blinked. "Sorry?"

"You haven't tried everywhere else, it's obvious. Because that really isn't the way to talk to your prospective employer." There was a smile in her voice again.

The young woman squeezed shut her eyes in annoyance – at herself, or at Madame Vastra, it wasn't clear. "Sorry ma'am."

"Good. My test is this. Answer my questions truthfully. Answer in one word only." She picked up a quill pen and a pad. "Are you ready?"

"Yes."

Madame Vastra laughed. "Well, it seems you have begun already! Why are you still here?"

"Determination."

The lady nodded slowly. "Why did you come in the first place."

The young woman blushed. "Curiosity."

Vastra scratched something on the paper, apparently pleased. "Miss Jenny Flint. That is not your real name."

After a hesitation, the young woman answered. "Correct."

"What is?"

There was a longer pause. "Rose."

Madame Vastra froze with the quill nib resting on the paper. "Surname?"

Rose bit her lip. "Tyler."

Madame Vastra leaned back in her chair and was silent for a minute, "How did you come here?"

Rose frowned. "Walked."

"Before that."

The young woman winced. "Angel."

Vastra stood up suddenly. "Miss Jenny Flint, you may take the job." And then she threw off her veil.


	4. Chapter 4

_The urchin looked at her twenty-first century clothes in bewilderment. _

Shit. _Not only were they from what she though was about a hundred years in the future, she was wearing jeans – something she highly doubted any Victorian ladies would have done even if denim had been in use. Because the scene she'd seen hadn't been 2013 – probably not even 1913, judging by the dresses the women were wearing. Usually when she turned up in another time zone she at least looked the part, but hose days were behind her, and in another world. _

"_I was going to a fancy dress party." It was a weak excuse, and she knew it._

"_A what?!" _

_A weak excuse that hadn't been invented yet, apparently. "A... masquerade."_

_He frowned. "A masquerade?" he sneered. "Yer in the wrong par' o' town." He shook his head and laughed unpleasantly. "A poor lost toff. I couldn' ask for anyfing more, could I?"_

_Rose stood up and fell into him again. They stayed upright, though. "Any by tha' you mean 'you've got loads o' dosh, I think I'll have that.'" She smirked. "Not a very good pickpocket, are you, if you don' notice yer knife goin' missin'?" She held up the said object and examined it. Quite a good blade, a dangerous one... and from what she could see, the boy would use it, given a chance. She grinned. At his horrified expression. "Me, a toff? Speakin' like this?" She gave him back his knife._

_He took it , still slightly confused. He scratched his head. "What's yer name?"_

"_Rose."_

_He glanced up at her suspiciously. "Tha's a toff's name."_

"_I can' 'elp it if my mam thought above 'er station!" Rose would never have been able to come up with a lie that in 2004. "I feel like a new start, though. 'Ow abou' Jenny?"_

_**Chapter Four**_

Rose had seen many odd faces, and quite a few in Victorian London. She just hadn't expected her new employer to be – well, green and scaly. Although why not, she didn't know – aliens seemed to follow her everywhere. However, only one had ever been beautiful before. And even he had barely been _this _beautiful. And he wasn't female...

The lizard woman raised a perfect eyebrow at Jenny's expression. "It's not that horrific, is it?"

Rose spluttered. "No ma'am, it's beaut— very nice."

"Oh, you are funny little things, aren't you? Human beings. So much emotion" she reached out and ran her gloved hand gently down the side of Rose's cheek.

The human being blushed. "You 'ave quite a lot as well, ma'am."

She laughed and her forked toungue flashed out as she did. "I'm Silurian, in case you were wondering. _Homo reptilia._"

"Okay! Sorry, I mean, that's fine, ma'am." she cursed silently and remembered to be Victorian.

Vastra sat down again and considered her new maid, her chin resting on steepled fingers. "What am I going to call you? Rose Tyler, who's come so far, or Jenny Flint, who's just starting?"

She didn't hesitate for a second. "Jenny."

Vastra frowned. "You don't want to go back?"

"I can't, can I? No one's coming to rescue me."

"Jenny, I gave you the job, partly because of the angel, but mainly because of your old name. Rose Tyler."

"What's so important about my name?" Rose's lips twitched. "I'm not important."

"Rose Tyler? Not important? Whatever happened to the Bad Wolf? What about all that time with the Doctor?" Rose froze and Vastra smiled. "Through to generations, I hear, no less."

Rose sat down, or rather fell, onto the nearest chair. "How do you know about the Doctor?"

"I'm a lizard woman from the dawn of time living in the most important city on Earth, how could I _not_ know the Doctor?"

"No, that's impossible!"

The Silurian took her hands down from her chin. "Why?"

"Because 'e only exists in one universe, and it ain't this one."

"Well, dear, I think you're wrong there."

**Vastra stroked Rose/Jenny's face out of curiosity, not attraction! That takes a bit longer...**


	5. Chapter 5

"_Awright, Jenny!" He grinned. "'Ow lost are yer?"_

_The newly christened Jenny bit her lip. "Well, I 'ain't got a chance of goin' back."_

"_Run away?" He nodded without waiting for an answer. "That's me. Couldn't stand it any long—"_

"_No!" she cut in. "S'not like that!" _

_Out of nowhere, it seemed to him, she started crying her eyes out. _Girls. _He patted her on the shoulder awkwardly. _

"_S-sorry." She wiped her eyes and gave an odd little smile. "What's your name, then?"_

"_Err... Jamie." He looked at her again. "Yer older then yer look, ain't yer?"_

_She grinned with her tongue between her teeth. "'Ow old d'you think I am?"_

_He blushed a deep scarlet. "E-eighteen?"_

_She laughed. "Ooh, you devil! I don't!"_

_He grinned. "Well, it cheered you up!_

"_Oi!" _

_He ignored her. "So, 'ow old are yer?"_

"_Twenty six! Although Jenny might be considerably younger..."_

_He punched her on the shoulder, something he never did to girls. "Na'ah, missy! Yer told me now!"_

_**Chapter Five**_

Vastra took off her gloves and lit the fire. "The Doctor keeps popping up here."

"But he can't!" Rose almost shouted. "That's impossible!" she whispered.

Madame Vastra was silent for a moment. "Do you know what that angel did to you?"

"Send me back in time, obviously."

"Yes... But I don't think that is all it did."

"If you're saying it sent me to another universe, it didn't. Nothing can travel between worlds."

Vastra took a blue hardback book from a bookshelf Rose hadn't noticed and leafed through it quicker than any human would have been able to read it. She eventually stopped on a page and looked up again. "It seems that you have, though. Five times."

Rose was a little shocked that Vastra had at least a page on her, but she hid it quite well – she thought. "The fabric of space/time was falling apart! It's been fixed now, it's IMPOSSIBLE!"

"The woman doth protest too much."

"Lady." Rose corrected absent-mindedly.

"Lady?"

"The lady doth protest to much... Anyway, it is impossible!"

"Well, obviously not." Vastra remained extremely calm whilst Rose got more and more worked up with each sentence. "You're here, aren't you?"

Rose opened her mouth to shout back, but Vastra's absurdly lovely smile stopped her in her tracks.

"Obviously the angel is more powerful than I earlier presumed, but I think it would only have been with you in particular."

Rose leaned back in her chair with a relieved huff. _The Doctor is here._ And then she suddenly felt far too hot and glanced at the roaring fire – on such a warm night!

"Cold-blooded." Vastra explained nonchalantly. "The crust's temperature, especially as far north as Britain, is a problem for me."

"Right'... Crus' temperature?"

"That is something we are going to have to sort you, my dear Jenny."

"Wha'?"

Madame Vastra raised her eyebrows again. "Your enunciation!"

"Oh righ'... right."

Vastra nodded.

"Why did you say the _crust_ temperature?"

"Well, because it's so cold!" She held her scaled hands in front of the fire and tried to get as close as possible to it. "So cold..."

Rose frowned and tried another tactic. "Well 'ow... how did you get here?"

"Hm?"

"Did your ship crash, or wha'? What?"

"My ship?!" Vastra drew herself up to her full height and Rose could have sworn she saw something large swish in front of the fireplace that seemed to originate somewhere underneaths Vastra's skirts. "I am Silurian!"

"So?"

"So?!" Her 's' came out as a long hiss.

There was definitely something behind Vastra... _Oh God, she's got a tail._

"This is _our_ planet! We were here aeons before you evolved!" Her tail batted from side to side, increasing in tempo and eventually extinguishing the fire. She close her eyes and hissed in anger.

Rose stood up and took Vastra by the arm and led her to the nearest chair. She lit the fire again, took off her own cloak, slid it over the enraged Silurian's shoulders and found a blanket draped over a stool which she placed gently on Vastra's knees.

Vastra's eyes flashed open suddenly. "You still think of yourself as Rose, don't you?"

Rose jumped at the unexpected snap and she straightened up hurriedly from stoking the fire. "Yes, ma'am." she replied apologetically.

"From now on, you are Jenny, and will think of yourself as such."

Jenny nodded. "Yes ma'am."


	6. Chapter 6

_Jamie showed Rose to a cheap but reliable boarding house in the evening, after he'd borrowed some of his friend's sister's clothes and Rose had pawned all her old clothes and most of her 21st century accessories._

_Jamie fidgeted outside the door to Rose's new room. "Yer know where ter find me if yer needs me." Her turned to go, but Rose grabbed his should and spun him around. "Thanks, Jamie." She kissed him on the cheek, grinned at his expression, turned back into her room and shut the door as his jaw dropped and he ran down the stairs as fast as his incredibly wobbly legs would carry him._

_Rose fell on her back onto her horribly thin mattress and stared at the ceiling. She'd had a good life in the 21st century, with a good job and a good house. Now she had to start from scratch again – in a time where nearly all jobs for women were house-keeping and child-nursing. _Well, _she thought as she stood up again, _child-nursing is out, so I'd better learn how to look after a household. _She smoothed out her skirts and went downstairs to ask the landlady for the papers._

_**Chapter Six**_

The first night Jenny spent in Madame Vastra's house was odd, even by Rose's standards – no, she was Jenny now.

"Ma'am, don' you 'ave – _have – _bed?"

Vastra was lying on the floor in a foetal position beside the fire. "Too cold." she mumbled through the blanket Jenny had covered her with again,

The newly employed maid tutted and stood up. "Well, seein'...g as I'm movin_g_ in, I'll go an...d get my things, and a bed warmer." There was no reply, as the Silurian was asleep. Jenny shook her head and smiled as she left the cobwebbed house. It seemed that the most alien thing in that alien world made her feel at home.

She returned an hour later, with duffel bags in hand, to find her employer practically wrapped around the grate. Jenny blinked, set down her bags, extracted a kettle and a warming pan from inside one of them, hung the kettle full of water above the open fire and went searching for Vastra's bed.

She found it in a room that she didn't think could possibly fit in the house. Instead of cobwebs, this room was lined with books – old books, recently published books, draft copies and proofs, books that wouldn't exist for hundreds of year... paperbacks, hardback, some with dust jackets, some without... it was a bibliophile's heaven. Half of the room was, at least. The other half looked like a Samurai's (or perhaps a ninja's) armoury. It seemed that every type of blade, from a beautifully crafted dagger to five full length katanas, was on display on those two walls. After Jenny got over her shock, she dragged her eyes back to the bed. It was completely round, with no head or foot-board with a dip in the middle. There were no blankets to cover the rich crimson mattress. "O' course she was cold!" Jenny muttered. She slipped on something as she made her way back to the parlour to fetch more coverings and shot out a hand to the circular bed to steady herself. She didn't fall, but she didn't get up, either. She looked worriedly down at her hand and almost laughed as she saw what had happened. She'd done a lot of things, but never had a bed eaten her hand. And that bed had a strong grip.

Suddenly, she felt a pair or reptilian hands on her shoulders and Vastra pulled her out of the bed. "Careful, dear. It's programmed to my body and it doesn't like intruders."


	7. Chapter 7

_She dumped the load of advertising pages on the flea ridden bed and started to leaf through them... Scullery maid required, £13 per annum... laundry maid, £13 per annum... parlour maid, £20, reference required... lady's maid, two references required, £20 (stingy, Rose thought)... parlour maid... housemaid... housekeeper £55 (she hadn't got the experience)... chamber maid..._

_The entries swam before her eyes and she had to stand up to get rid of the feeling of dizziness. She pushed her unruly hair behind her ears and dove into the papers again._

_Scullery maid... reference required... £20 per annum... to serve large household... £1 per month... to serve single lady... chamber maid... And then she saw it. A tiny advertisement with a font that seemed to draw attention away from itself. _

_Housekeeper required for large house, £70 per annum. No references needed. Reply immediately. 13 Paternoster Street, Cheapside._

_Seventy pounds... from the other advertisements and from the few history lessons she remembered that was a _lot_ of money..._

_**Chapter Seven**_

"Why the bloody 'ell is your bed programmed to eat people?!"

Vastra looked hurt. "It's not! I've just used it as an execution device before now, it must have thought I was doing it again!"

Jenny blinked a few times before replying. "Execution device?"

Vastra shook her head. "I made a pact with myself _not _to scare off my new maid." She looked up at Jenny with what was almost a puppy-dog expression. "I'm sorry."

Jenny swallowed, and then decided that she'd ask her employer about that later. "Tha's fine, ma'am."

Vastra breathed an extremely faked sigh of relief. "That's good." She smirked and sat down on the bed in question.

Jenny composed herself for a moment. "Well, I know why yer beds too cold, it ain't got any covers!"

Vastra looked confused. "It doesn't need any."

"Err... why?"

Vastra fell back on her bed and the mattress enveloped her, leaving only her head on show, and then just raised her eyebrows.

Jenny was reminded of a bath, but the blood red colour of the material forced her to stop those thoughts in their tracks. "Then why did you say it's too cold?"

Vastra hissed in annoyance. "It's thermoregulation chip is faulty. It has never worked on the crust."

"Thermo-what?"

Vastra huffed again. "What makes it the right temperature for my body."

Jenny sort of understood that. "Well, where's the... I don't know, maintenance hatch?"

Vastra seemed surprised that Jenny had thought of something she hadn't though of, but Jenny thought she might also be surprised that she had thought of anything at all. "It's" she struggled with something in the folds of the mattress and eventually pulled out a green egg-like object "here." She tapped it on the top with one of her worryingly long black nails and the shells split apart in four ways. She held it out to Jenny who took it tentatively and was relieved to find the actual motherboard (or whatever Silurians called it) wasn't that different from what the Doctor had showed her on New New Earth that first time, before they'd even seen the Sisters of Plenitude. After a bit of tweaking that Madame Vastra only just managed to hide her impressed expression at, it started hissing madly at Jenny. She promptly dropped it in shock, something long and red snapped out from somewhere near to Vastra and dragged it to the bed. And then Jenny noticed that the bed hadn't randomly grown a tentacle (she wouldn't have put it past it), it was Madame Vastra's tongue that was around the egg-computer and she was hissing right back at it.

Jenny doubted Vastra had ever read any of her favourite books, but she had to say it anyway. "Are you speaking Parseltongue?" Vastra's bemused face confirmed her suspicions.


	8. Chapter 8

"_Mrs. Turner?"_

_Her landlady jumped and made to stand up "I'm very sorry—"_

"_I made you a cuppa." Rose put the tea down and pushed Mrs. Turner gently back into her chair, who beamed. Rose found another chair and sat down opposite her. "You look like you needed it."_

_Mrs. Turner closed her eyes blissfully as she sipped the hot drink. "Yes, I did!"_

"_You ain't talked to anybody about it, 'ave you?"_

_The landlady hesitated, then shook her head. _

_Rose took her hand in hers. "You can tell me, Mrs. T, I won't tell nobody."_

_Mrs Turner looked at Rose sharply. "All right. For some reason I trust you , so I might as well."_

_Rose grinned. "I 'ave that effect on people."_

_After half an hour of listening to Mrs. Turner talk about her husband's emigration, Rose thought it was the right time to ask what she'd been waiting for. Mrs. Turner seemed relaxed, as Rose had planned, and hopefully wouldn't be suspicions._

"_You know those papers I got yesterday? There was a funny advertisement for a house-keeper – no references required, £70 a year!"_

_Mrs. Turner glanced up suddenly. "It isn't for 13 Paternoster Street, is it?"_

_Rose feigned surprise – she knew there would have been a catch. "Yeah, how did you know?"_

_Mrs. Turner pursed her lips. "That woman will do anything to get a maid."_

_Rose laughed. "I noticed! Why's no one taken up 'er offer?"_

_There was a pause. "That house... it's an evil place. Not evil as in a human's bad deeds, properly _evil_. And the woman – never seen out of her mourning clothes, always with a veil covering her face – not that she ever comes out. There's just something _wrong_ about that place."_

_Definitely applying, Rose concluded._

_**Chapter Eight**_

"Aside from not being familiar with the climate, it says it needs its reservoir _refilling_." Vastra looked as though she had never had to do it before – _it can't have used it all up! I only refilled it two months ago!_

"Well, there's 'ot water in the kettle, I'll go and get it." When Jenny came back in with the aforementioned object, Vastra was in exactly the same position, but with a slightly more confused look on her face.

"What year is it?"

Jenny had to think about that. "I think it's 1887, ma'am. Or it might be 1886."

Vastra's tongue shot out to its full (and worrying) length in shock. "_One thousand, eight hundred and eighty six?"_

Jenny frowned. "Yeah, why? Didn't you look at the paper when you published your advertisement?"

Vastra shook her head. "No, that was an... acquaintance. _1886 A. D?!"_

"Yes, like I said!"

Vastra was the one who blinked then. "No wonder it needs refilling, I have been asleep for six thousand years!"

"Six thousand _years._"

Vastra ran her hands over the crest on top of her head, and massaged their tips, which had erected in what Jenny presumed was some sort of Silurian response to extreme shock, but didn't answer. She jut shook her head again. "I'd better get refilling, then."

"No, ma'am, as your maid, tha's my job." Jenny found the valve and poured boiling water in it until Vastra held out a hand to stop her. The Silurian lay back in the bed and suddenly her whole body flushed with the crimson of the bed, and then the bed with the emerald of her body. Jenny was about to ask about it, but at the look of complete peace on her employer's face, she made to leave her alone.

"Jenny?"

"Yes, ma'am?"

"Because of your interference with the controls" _Is that a criticism? No, _Jenny decided, _she just doesn't understand. _"the bed no longer thinks of you as a stranger."


	9. Chapter 9

_Rose sent her (practically non-existent) credentials to 13 Paternoster Street and received a note back the following day, to come for an interview as soon as was possible. She spent two days buying the cheapest things with which one can live, and on the third day she decided that she was procrastinating and that she would go for the interview that evening. She had applied as Jenny Flint, but at that point, Rose Tyler refused to disappear. _

_When Jamie knocked on her door at three o'clock, she had just finished packing and was contemplating dying her hair, which Jamie told her was 'a bloody stupid idea', so she didn't. Instead, she grinned and hugged the startled urchin, who was obviously hiding something behind his back, but she didn't say a word. "Why're you 'ere?"_

_He gulped. "I 'eard... I 'eard yer were leaving. Gettin' a job."_

"_Yeah, I am. I was goin' to come an' see you an the way there." She sat down on the bed and patted the mattress beside her._

"_Why?" He sat down heavily._

"_'cos I wanted to say goodbye, silly! You didn' think I'd just up an' leave you?"_

_He didn't reply._

"_You idiot! You really 'elped me, an' I really like you, doofus!"_

_He grinned. "Fanks, mate." He hesitated, then finally showed her what he'd been hiding. It was a beautiful, crimson red rose, with sharp thorns and a light green stem. "It's called a jennyrose...Ain't it what yer got yer new name from?"_

_**Chapter Nine**_

Jenny couldn't find another bed, so with a grudging heart she curled up to sleep on one of Madame Vastra's armchairs, which was actually more comfortable than the bed at Mrs. Turner's. With the warmth from the fire, and thoughts of her new employer, she quickly fell asleep.

Jenny woke up a few hours later, finally feeling the cold Vastra had complained of, due to the fir having died. Her sleep-deprived brain decided that she needed to check on Vastra straight away. She stumbled blearily into the library armoury bed chamber and saw that Madame had indeed disappeared. Jenny rubbed her eyes, but the Silurian didn't come back. Jenny turned around and took in the room again, slowly spinning towards the circular bed and fell back on it. The last thing Jenny took in before the bed engulfed her (peacefully) was that the two longest katanas were missing from their racks.

When Madame Vastra appeared in her room many hours later, she wasn't exactly surprised to find her bed occupied. She smirked, hung up her swords and stripped – she didn't understand the apes' obsession with wearing clothes to sleep in, so she didn't. Her scales were flushed from the effects of her hunt and she revelled in it. She scrubbed a few splashes of blood from her crests and climbed into the bed. There was plenty of room for two and seeing as she owned it she had no intention of sleeping in a chair.

The next morning, Jenny woke up, squeaked when she saw a green head in the crimson mattress next to her and fled from the room. She stoked up the fire and tried to set about making breakfast, but there wasn't any food. Anywhere. Not a breadcrumb. She even ventured into the cobwebbed part of the house, but there wasn't anything. Jenny hoped she'd get paid soon, because otherwise her money was going to all be used on things that her employer didn't seem to realise that she needs to buy for herself, or at least provide money for. Of course, Vastra probably could provide money, but Jenny wasn't brave enough to wake up a lizard women from the dawn of time.


	10. Chapter 10

_**I am very sorry this took so long, I think that might be the rate I publish now, work seems to have crept up on me and now I have piles and piles of it. Anyway, here it is!**_

"_A... jennyrose?"_

"_Yeah! I though' it were clever – yer old name were Rose, so yer new one's Jenny!"_

_Rose shook her head. "I never 'eard of it before." She frowned, and passed it off as coincidence. "It's beautiful, though, It's really sweet o' you." She gave him another peck on the cheek and he was only slightly more prepared for it the second time around._

"_Err.. thanks!"_

_Rose grinned. "Well, are you goin' to be a genleman an' 'elp me take by bags downstairs?"_

_His face dropped. "Mrs. T. said you were goin' to the Paternoster place."_

"_I am. Why?_

_He shook his head. "Yer be careful."_

"_Oh, for God's sake, Jamie! You don' believe 'em ghost stories, do you?"_

_He hesitated. "Not the ghost stories, exactly." Yer know 'em angel statues that someone's building all over London?"_

_She didn't, but she nodded anyway. "Well, they _used_ to be all over... Now they're all in Cheapside. Don' ask me 'ow, I don' know, but 'em angels 'ave moved."_

_**Chapter Ten**_

Jenny hung her shopping bags on a conveniently placed statue's arm as she fiddled to open the door again, cursing the lack of a handle. Suddenly a handle was no longer needed as the door flew open and Jenny fell into Madame Vastra.

"Where have you been?!" Once Jenny had got over the embarrassment of practically flinging herself into her employer's chest, she noticed that she could tell when Vastra was angry as her accent slipped and she started hissing.

"I went to get some food, ma'am, there weren't any in the 'ouse."

"_Wasn't_ any in the _house_, dear."

"... Sorry, ma'am."

A few minutes later, Jenny found Vastra polishing her swords in an almost meditative state in her library. She stayed a safe difference from the point of the katana. "Ma'am?"

As expected, the blade's handle flew to Vastra's arm and was aimed towards the noise before the Silurian realised who was standing in the doorway. "Yes?"  
Jenny tried not to squeak in fear. "Do you have a kitchen?"

"No."

"Right... do you have an oven?"

"What is an oven?"

"It's what you cook your food in!"

"You _cook_ food to eat it?"

"Yeah!" Jenny frowned. "When do you cook it?"

"For ceremonies only! Eating cooked food..." Vastra shuddered in repulsion.

"Well..." It occurred to Jenny that she had no idea what Silurians ate. "I suppose vegetables are alright raw, but –"

"Vegetables? You eat vegetables?!"

"You don't?!"

Vastra reached outside the door and pulled off a strand of ivy. "They are little green things with no taste at all!"

_Like you then! _Jenny didn't voice her thoughts. "But they're good for you!"

The lizard woman stared at her in horror.

"You just eat raw meat? Well, where do you keep it? The house doesn't stink, is it somewhere in your jungle of a garden?"

Vastra considered telling Jenny off for criticising her, but decided again that she really did want a maid. "No. I hunt, I catch, I kill, I eat. In one go."

Jenny crossed her arms and leant against the door frame, pleased that they were having this conversation so soon. "Where? There aren't any woods or fields in London, and I don't believe that fiasco over the Ratcliffe Highway tiger being lost."

"Well, it obviously wasn't lost, it was stolen. And I hunt all over London, I find it incredibly easy to find prey here, the apes are everywhere."

It was probably the way that she said it – so calmly, without fuss. In all her years of travelling Jenny didn't think she'd ever been that scared.


	11. Chapter 11

_Rose knew from experience when someone was telling a ghost story and when someone was frightened. She'd learnt the hard way, and she wasn't eager to repeat that experience. Jamie wasn't telling a ghost story, and now she had no way she could help him... apart from see what was happening from the eye of the storm itself. If the statues had gone to Cheapside, then so would she._

"_Jamie, I ain't got the money to live wi'out working, you know that. An' I _want_ to work! An'... well, I'm curios."_

_Jamie grinned. "Though' yer migh' be." He sobered instantly. "I'll look ou' for yer, jus' in case. Now, good luck to yer, an' go star' working!"_

_Rose kissed his cheek again and walked off with her bags, into her new life, and into danger._

_**Chapter Eleven**_

After a few frozen moments, Jenny took the bag from the statue's grasp and slowly walked back inside the cobweb infested house. She didn't utter a word as she unpacked her shopping, or as she heard the Silurian enter the room and stand behind her. Eventually, when it seemed that Vastra was unwilling to start the conversation, she conceded her silence. "To be honest, I 'aven't got on with many people who eat humans."

"Most humans wouldn't."

_Is that it? _"Yeah, I know."

Something flicks out and grabs Jenny's shoulder, pulling her round to face her mistress. It disappears instantly, but she has feeling it originated in Vastra's mouth. However, right now she didn't even want to think about that."I'm sorry. It was insensitive of me." It seemed to take an unprecedented amount of effort for her to apologise.

Jenny nodded. "Yeah, yeah it was."

"Will you stay?"

She was silent again for a while. "Are humans... Is that all you eat?"

"Yes... But I don't have to."

"If I stay, and cook you meals, will you stop?"

"No! Of course not! Why would I accept such an agreement from an _ape?!_" Vastra hissed. She shut her mouth sharply as Jenny turned away from her and walked into the next room. _You can't let her leave, not now. _But she couldn't just stop eating humans for one silly little ape. She stood up, accidentally swiped everything that Jenny had bought onto the floor with her tail and pointedly stoked the fire as her maid for a day left the house. _But was that so that she knew you weren't interested, or to mask the sound of the door closing? _The lizard woman leapt with an almost feral snarl to her bed and sank into its warmth. Vastra had never had a conscience before, and she didn't appreciate it now it had decided to turn up.


	12. Chapter 12

_Five years ago, Vastra awoke after an almost eternal sleep to the sounds she didn't understand, things she didn't recognise and blood she could tell was her sisters' all over her body. Who had slaughtered them in their sleep? What Silurian would have the courage, let alone the insanity, to kill two hibernating? How had they infected her mind and made here worry about this? She would kill them, whoever they were, and make their death painful and long! _

_She couldn't see her sisters' lifeless bdies even with her night vision. If she was going to avenge them, he needed to have an advantage over her enemy, and that meant knowing her surrounding. He didn't know how long thye had been aleep, but almost certainly long enough to mean the immediate environment would have changed. The Silurian warrior extracted herself from her shattered hibernation pod and stracthed her limbs. Whoever the attacker had been, they hadn't harmed her, perhaps as they presumed the blood soaking into her cloths had been her own. That is to say, she didn't feel harmed, she had the procedre for 'unexpected hostile awakening' drummed into her since she was just a hatchling, so she made a thorough inspection with her tongue. A she had thought, nothing. Good. That would make it that much easier when she met her enemy,_

_**Chapter Twelve**_

In the three hours since Jenny had left, Madame Vastra had not moved from her position hunched over the fire. Occaisionally, her tongue flicked out briefly to swat the flies that had somehow escaped the cobwebs, attracted by whatever Jenny had bought and left on the dust covered table.

Reluctant to get up and lose the flames warmth to see what it was, Vastra breathed out all the air she had in her lungs and sucked in air from all over the room into her nore; a trick used by warriors o sniff out who thery up against. She ignored all the now-familiar smells of the pine-wood panelling, smoke from the fire and Jenny's human smell, and found another edible scent. Not human (too sweet, and something Jenny obviously wouldn't buy), but definitely mamalian (too much meat for a bird, and not chewy enough for a reptile – Silurians can small the taste of their prey) o it must be one of things these the apes hunted – although to call it that was exaggerating. She had seen the stupid beasts going to the slaughter without a thought of fear. They were... bovine. Interesting. She ometimes wondered what the humans prefered to eat. Silurian unters had once brought the bovine creatures into the cities but they had proved wasteful to eat, as certain part were either unappitising or didn't agree with their reptilian digestive systems.

Finally, curioity compelled Vastra to move from her feotal position and crept silently to the bag containing the meat. When the saw inside the holdel, she thought at first she couldn't trust her sense of smell. What was it? It seemed to be just a hunk of tissue. She vaguely recognised it as the most tasteful part of the bovine, but they had eaten much more that this and it was still considered an enormous waste. _I was right. The apes are all idiots._


End file.
